Kukla's Korner Hockey

Entries with the tag: doug weight

Here we are in early December and the hockey world, at least the United States hockey world, is already looking to Detroit.

Just under a month away from the Greater Detroit area hosting the largest hockey event in history with the Winter Classic at Michigan Staduim and the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame is inducting the class of the 2013 right in the heart of Hockeytown.

Weight is calling it quits after a brilliant career that saw him tally 1,033 points in 1,238 NHL games. One of the finest American centers to ever play the game, Weight’s retirement all but means a changing of the guard for U.S. hockey, as only Detroit Red Wings center Mike Modano remains from an era that produced some of the greatest American hockey players (Chris Chelios, Brett Hull and Jeremy Roenick, just to name a few) in history. And there’s a good chance Modano may retire this offseason, too.

“I think we saw with that with (last year’s) Olympics,” Weight told NHL.com when asked if a new day has dawned on U.S. hockey. “Mike was really the only one that had a chance to make the team and didn’t. I’m proud of them. They played great. That’s a fun thing and they should really embrace that. Maybe since ‘95, ‘96 when we won the World Cup, that was an unbelievable ride. You always penciled in that next big tournament and you knew probably 15 of the 20 players that were always going to be on those teams, and that was a cool thing. It was just a great experience and something I’ll never forget.

“It is a changing (of the guard). I look forward to staying a fan. I mean, (Zach) Parise and (Ryan) Kesler … the list goes on and the players that we have that can play the game. They made us proud in Vancouver and I’m sure they will in the future.”

UNIONDALE, NY, May 26, 2011 – New York Islanders captain Doug Weight announced his retirement today from the National Hockey League. He will remain with the Islanders organization as an Assistant Coach and Senior Advisor to the General Manager.

“It was an honor to be a member of the NHL for the 19 years I laced up my skates,” Weight said. “I have a lifetime of memories from playing this game and cherish them all. I am excited to begin this next phase of my professional career and help the Islanders continue to climb the ladder to winning the Stanley Cup.”

Weight, a veteran of 1,335 NHL games, finished his career, placing 65th place on the NHL’s all time scoring list with 1,033 points. The Detroit, MI, native’s 748 career assists rank 40th all time, while his 1,238 regular season games played are the 76th highest total in NHL history.

“Doug is the ultimate leader,” said Islanders General Manager Garth Snow. “He has taken our young core of players, over the past three years, and helped elevate their game to a point where we now see our franchise competing with the top teams in the league. On behalf of the organization, I’d like to thank Doug for his commitment to the New York Islanders and we are excited to have him join our Hockey Operations Department in seeing through with our goal of winning the Stanley Cup.”

New York Islanders captain Doug Weight, who has been dealing with chronic back spasms since November, informed the local media on Tuesday that he will sit out the remainder of the season.

The 40-year-old center remains uncertain if he’ll retire, however.

Weight, a 19-season veteran and the fifth-oldest player in the League, has struggled to remain in the lineup in recent seasons due to nagging injuries. Back spasms have kept him out of the lineup for all but 18 games in 2010-11—he hasn’t played since Nov. 17 against Tampa Bay and was placed on injured reserve.

He previously underwent season-ending shoulder surgery on March 18, 2010.

The New York Islanders have agreed to terms on a one-year contract extension with team captain Doug Weight.

A veteran of 19 NHL seasons and 1,220 career games, Weight returns for his third year with the Islanders. In 36 games last season, the Detroit, Michigan native scored seventeen points (1 goal and 16 assists).

“Doug has played an important role in helping to develop our young players over the past two seasons and we’re excited to see him continue his historic career on Long Island,” Islanders General Manager Garth Snow said.

The Islanders have signed center Doug Weight to a one-year contract extension. In his first season with the Islanders, Weight is third on the team in scoring with nine goals and 26 assists for 35 points despite missing 29 games due to injury.

Weight originally signed with the Islanders as an unrestricted free agent on July 2, 2008. The contract runs through the 2009-10 season.

“Long Island has been a wonderful place for me and my family,” Weight said. “It was an easy decision to come back for another season. The Islanders have been a first-class organization and I’m looking forward to helping our team continue its development into a contender.”

Doug Weight, a 16-year NHL veteran, was just entering high school as the Steve Yzerman era was beginning in Detroit. Only five years his senior, Stevie Y was the kind of player Weight modelled himself after.

“Yzerman was always my favourite player,” said Weight, a Warren, Mich., native and self-proclaimed Red Wings fan. “The way he played, the way he carried himself, that’s what made him great.”

Few would dispute the fact Yzerman was one of the greatest players in NHL history. Besides his knack for scoring big goals and racking up impressive statistics, it was Yzerman’s leadership that marked him as a true great, captaining the Wings for nearly two decades.

According to Weight, Yzerman is the benchmark for what great leadership really is: being genuinely dedicated to the team.

The news doesn’t get much worse than this for a 30th place NHL team playing without it’s All-Star goaltender. But the Islanders just announced that center Doug Weight, who suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament in the second period last night against the Devils, is out for six weeks.

On a day when Weight and Guerin reminisced about old times with the Edmonton media, the trade winds that have been swirling around Weight flared up again with rumors of a possible deal with Columbus. Weight said he has been told during the course of this road trip that no deal is in the works….

“Well, you cross that bridge when you come to it,” said Weight, who will turn 38 this month. “Right now, I have to get myself playing. I was hurt about two weeks ago, and I haven’t liked how I’ve played since….”

Guerin, 38, has a “no-move” clause in his deal. Asked if he would invoke it, the Isles’ captain said: “Right now, I’m focused on this season. If something like that comes up, we’ll deal with it.”

At the same time, he said no one from the Islanders has approached him about a contract extension. “I haven’t had any discussions yet,” Guerin said. “I don’t know what to expect.”

Weight made a brilliant cross-ice feed from his own blue line on the right side to Park at the Phoenix blue line on the opposite side to spring him for a breakaway goal that made it a 5-3 game at 16:55 of the third. As a footnote to history, the second assist went to DiPietro.

The Phoenix organization stopped the game to recognize Weight’s achievement, and the crowd gave him a sustained ovation. With a nod to Coyotes coach and managing partner Wayne Gretzky, Weight said, “That’s very nice. Anything run by Wayne Gretzky is first- class.”

The Isles’ leading scorer later added his 1,001st point with a second assist on Park’s second goal with 28 seconds left in regulation. Weight became only the eighth American and 73rd player overall in NHL history to reach 1,000 points.

“It felt good, but it would have been better to creep back into a tie,” Weight said. “I couldn’t move all day. I felt very nervous. I had 25 or 30 people here. It’s something I’m going to be proud of for the rest of my life, and my family was here to see it ... Me being an American, it’s nice to do it on this soil.”

“I don’t want to be traded,” Weight said yesterday after the team practiced in Syosset in preparation for today’s home game against the Panthers. “I’ve been treated great here. I love the coaching staff, I love the team.”

But the veteran has been around long enough to understand how the business works. He signed a one-year deal with the Isles and has shown through the first half of the year that he still can play at a high level - and that he could help a team with more realistic postseason hopes.

“It’s always a possibility, seeing how the team started,” Weight said. “We’ll see what kind of position we’re at in the new year. But it puts you in a sour mood when you start hearing about it for the first time.”

Weight: The Islanders, and Long Island in general, doesn’t get a fair shake. I think when organizations and teams are in stretches like this team has gone through, players are going to second guess about coming here — and rightfully so. It’s tough to bring free agents here. But they’ve done a great job of trading, drafting and building from within.

I thought it might go past the July 4 weekend, but the Islanders got the deal done a few minutes ago. Point Blank has learned that the Islanders have signed veteran center Doug Weight to a one-year deal.

[Doug] Weight is looking to play another year and St. Louis has become home. Is there a fit here?

Maybe, maybe not. I recall that Weight was unhappy with how coach Andy Murray was using him last season, before his deal. Murray saw Weight as more of a role player at this late stage of his career, a designation that Weight resisted.

But if Doug did return to the Blues as a free agent, he would have to embrace a third- or fourth-line assignment if the lines fell that way.

If being scratched for one of the few times in his long career was a message sent to Doug Weight, it was momentarily lost on the veteran center.

“I don’t need a message,” Weight said, when asked about being in street clothes Sunday for the Ducks’ shootout win. “I’ve played 1,100 games. The message was I have to be at the rink at 7 o’clock [to work].”

The Ducks are also waiting to learn the severity of an arm injury to veteran center Doug Weight, who traveled back to Southern California on Sunday and was scheduled to undergo an MRI exam Monday. Carlyle guessed after Sunday’s 3-2 triumph over the Detroit Red Wings that Weight might be out of action at least a week. Losing Weight for any lengthy period of time would present a conundrum for General Manager Brian Burke, who might have to be more active in advance of the Feb. 26 NHL trade deadline.

but first… from the OC Register,

“Sammy Pahlsson hasn’t played in an offensive role, I don’t think, in his career – in the NHL anyway,” Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. “We’re going to look to him to step up.”...

Carlyle has the flexibility to line up Pahlsson with Selanne and Bertuzzi because of players such as rookie Ryan Carter, Todd Marchant and Brian Sutherby.

The holdup in the deal was Weight’s no-trade clause, which he waived reluctantly. Weight spent six seasons in St. Louis, re-signing with the club in 2006 after winning a Stanley Cup in Carolina.

When asked how the deal unfolded and why he waived his no-trade clause, Weight said: “I just don’t feel like I want to comment on that. It is what it is ... Over the last 15 years, I’ve developed a pretty good reputation and I’m an honest person. I have no need to leave this city throwing mud, you know. I’m not going to comment on how it went down. If somebody asks me, I’ll tell them ... and I guarantee my teammates and friends will know exactly what happen.”...

“There’s nothing more I wanted than to try and win here,” Weight said. “It was an exciting atmosphere at the beginning of the year. Sometimes things happen that aren’t in your control. Some things aren’t always as they seem.”

Now, if you believed Corey Perry was going to be moved, or there was even some talk of him being moved, then you probably should not be reading this. Go back to the drama queen channel, you may find something you like there.

St. Louis Blues President John Davidson announced today the team has acquired forward Andy McDonald from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Doug Weight, Michal Birner and a 7th round draft choice in 2008.

“We’re excited to add a top caliber forward to our hockey team,” said Davidson. “Doug is a true professional and we would like to thank him and his wife Allison for the time and dedication they have provided to the St. Louis Blues.”

“Andy McDonald has been a great contributor for us over the last few seasons, and we thank him for the tremendous work ethic and character he brought to our club,” said Executive Vice President/General Manager Brian Burke. “At the same time, we are pleased to add one of the most dynamic passers in the NHL today with Doug Weight. His production and leadership during his NHL and international career speak for themselves.”

____________________*Credit to a post yesterday by Ericnut at HF Boards, for apparently putting this deal online 24 hours before anyone else. Nice job.

With the St. Louis Blues on a three-game losing streak and struggling to find offense, center Doug Weight is more than willing to help.

But with no goals and three assists in the first 14 games, Weight is pressing to find a way to do it.

“I’ve had these points in my career before, where you go 10 or 12 games and you can’t buy anything,” said Weight, who has two assists in his last 11 games. “This is frustrating because the team needs it and we’ve lost some games where I could have helped.”

Columbus’ Sergei Federov is 3-3-6 and a minus-2 in 12 games. He’s an aging superstar on a young team on the rise ... The Blues’ Doug Weight. Another vet in trouble. He has no goals and two assists in 11 games ...

Pittsburgh reps have been following the Stars from city-to-city. The hunch: Assessing Dallas G Marty Turco and/or defensemen.

“We’re three games above .500,” Weight said in reference to the team’s 6-3 mark before the 2-1 loss. “If I didn’t produce much in the first nine games, which is my job, then I’ve got to do something about it. But I’m going to try to be upbeat. All you can do is work as hard as you can and get the coach to get you back out there.”

Weight is referring to his challenging relationship with Blues coach Andy Murray, who has limited the center’s playing time and kept him off the No. 1 power-play unit as a result of his slow start.